Is Malacañang Palace afraid of the Ampatuan clan?

“Is this government afraid? Or inutile? Or simply powerless against the powers-that-be in Maguindanáo?” asked Carlos Isagani Zarate, secretary general of the Union of People’s Lawyers in Mindanáo, commenting on Malacañang Palace’s seemingly kid-gloved treatment of last Monday’s Maguindanáo Massacre.

Secretary Raúl González, chief presidential legal counsel, has this to say: “If we use the iron hand on them (Ampatuan political clan), they might fight back. We should take precaution. These are not ordinary people.”

“They might fight back…”, yeah – but not necessarily with arms, but with an ace up their sleeves. You see, the Ampatuans know all about the massive electoral fraud in Mindanao in 2004, so that’s their “ace”. If the government chases them, they’ll spill the beans on Gloria, and the party’s over.

But really – how much would it take to take on the Ampatuans if the government has the Armed Forces of the Philippines on its side? Is Gonzales saying the AFP is powerless to neutralize or disarm these SOB’s? What a bunch of bull!

The Government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo created the Frankenstein monter in the form of the Ampatuans, and I believe that her government can also detroy them if she so wishes. And I believe there are more Ampatuans in the Philippines that needed to be destroyed.

We’ll see what sort of justice Gloria is bragging about. This is an outright affront to her leadership and an affront to our democracy. This scale of violence is no-nonsense. This will go down in history as the worst. This is a premeditated clan cleansing that even journalists were not spared. And yet our gov’t is petrified of them fighting back?

So much focus on the Ampatuans gives us a myopic view of the whole situation. While they are to blame for the massacre, a few questions are left unanswered and undoubtedly they will never be.
1. where did they get their high powered guns.
2. what were the supposed protectors of the citizenry doing.
I’m proud to be a Filipino but sadly with the governance we have now, our beloved country is going to the dogs.